Tomorrow, the Moon's shadow crosses Greenland, Iceland, Spain, and a small corner of Portugal. People have been planning for the August 12, 2026 total solar eclipse for years. Flights, hotels, backup locations, weather models, camera lists, and probably a backup list for the backup list.

That is not how Chloe and I did it in 2024.

Our plan was simple enough to fit in one sentence: get inside the path of totality and see the eclipse.

The right car at the right time

I had just bought a 2002 Subaru Impreza Outback Sport at auction. It was 22 years old in 2024 and somehow had only 98,000 miles on it. I had not owned it long enough to build the kind of trust you normally want before pointing an old auction car toward upstate New York, but waiting for perfect circumstances did not make much sense. The eclipse was happening whether we were ready or not.

So I took my daughter out of school, loaded the cameras, and we left Middletown, Virginia. No tour group. No carefully rehearsed itinerary. Just the two of us, an old Subaru, and the understanding that whatever else happened, we were going to see totality.

The silver 2002 Subaru Impreza Outback Sport used for the eclipse road trip photographed in warm evening light

I miss that car. It was old enough to have a personality, young enough to still be useful, and honest about what it was. It carried us north without complaint and became part of the story almost immediately.

Then the clouds changed the plan

We went toward upstate New York because that was where we expected to watch. Once we got there, we found a random dispersed camping spot in South Valley State Forest, pitched the tent, and called it a night. There was no reservation and no real plan beyond waking up inside the path of totality.

By the morning of April 8, the forecast had other ideas. The cloud cover looked wrong, and a total eclipse is not something you can ask to hold for a few hours while the sky clears.

We started moving west.

The timeline looks almost ridiculous now. South Valley State Forest. Onoville. Jamestown. Dunkirk. A Tim Hortons. Fuel stops whenever the Subaru asked for them. We kept checking the sky and the forecast, making the next decision only when we had to make it. Eventually the route carried us to Presque Isle State Park in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Google Maps timeline showing the April 8, 2024 route from western New York to Presque Isle State Park in Erie and then south toward Virginia
The route west to Erie and then south through Pennsylvania toward home.

Roughly 700 miles for less than four minutes

  1. Middletown, VirginiaLoad the Subie, point north, and start chasing totality.
  2. South Valley State ForestI think we're here! Dispersed camping spot in western New York, pitch the tent... and wake up to a forecast that refuses to cooperate.
  3. Onoville Marina ParkThe first morning check. The clouds still say move west.
  4. Jamestown, New YorkAnother stop, another forecast check, and still no reason to stop driving.
  5. Dunkirk, New YorkTim Hortons, Lake Erie, and a sky that is finally beginning to look more promising.
  6. Presque Isle State ParkSet up the cameras and for the first time all day, stop moving.
  7. TotalityThe reason for every mile. Erie goes dark and the corona appears.
  8. South through PennsylvaniaPack the cameras, leave the island, and drive through the night with the 1000s of other eclipse viewers.
  9. Back in MiddletownHome safe. No regrets, no disappointment, and a core memory created.

A few minutes that justified every mile

We reached Presque Isle at 1:15 in the afternoon. Totality began in Erie a little after 3:16 and lasted less than four minutes. For once, we had almost two hours where we did not need to make another decision.

The light changed slowly, then all at once. The temperature dropped. The horizon looked wrong in every direction. The ordinary afternoon disappeared and the corona came out around the Moon.

I had cameras with me, of course. I wanted the photographs, and we got them. The red prominences along the edge of the Sun, the diamond ring, the corona stretching into the darkness. Those photographs matter because they let me return to it. But the reason the day stays with me has almost nothing to do with settings or lenses.

The diamond ring effect at the edge of the Moon during the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse
The partially eclipsed Sun photographed through thin clouds before totality in Erie, Pennsylvania

It was my daughter and me, far from home, standing on an island in Lake Erie because we kept moving until we found the sky we needed. We had no real plan beyond seeing the eclipse, and somehow that was enough.

Gone with no regrets

The Subaru is gone now. I still miss it occasionally, great MPG and unique looks. But I do not feel regret about selling it, its making someone else happy and we have the memories. It did exactly what it needed to do when it mattered.

The eclipse was the same way. Totality lasted only a few minutes. You cannot keep it, stretch it out, or make it happen again. You can only be there when it arrives.

We came home with great photographs and better memories. The car is gone. The eclipse moved on. And we're still making spontaneous road trips, this is life.

With another total solar eclipse crossing Iceland and mainland Europe on August 12, I understand why people are traveling across oceans to stand under it. NASA's path map shows totality crossing Greenland, Iceland, Spain, and Portugal. For most of us in the United States, the next one is not outside the door. But that is part of the point. Some memories are worth chasing.

See the full set of photographs in my 2024 Total Eclipse gallery, or read another story from the road in my HyperFest journal.